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Stanford Opens Carolina Trip Beating Davidson

from press release

DAVIDSON, N.C. - The No. 15 Stanford women's
lacrosse team opened a two-game trip in North Carolina with a 19-4
rout of Davidson, getting scoring from a season-high 14 players in
Friday's nonconference contest.

Freshman Maria Fortino scored the first two goals of her collegiate
career to tie Bess Siegfried, Sarah Flynn, Karen Nesbitt and Maggie
Sachs for team goal-scoring honors.

Leslie Foard scored only 19 seconds into the game, off an assist
from Flynn, to spark a flurry of 11 unanswered goals over the first
21 minutes for Stanford (10-3).

Goalkeeper Annie Read, ranked No. 11 in the country in
goals-against average, lowered her average to 8.62 and was required
to make only four saves behind a defense that compensated well for
the loss of injured senior Maris Perlman, the reigning conference
player of the week.

"Our defense made adjustments, and was very organized," Stanford
coach Amy Bokker said. "And the offense was able to put it in,
which is something we've been working on."

Co-captain Bess Siegfried played a large leadership role in defense
and was pivotal to the team's strong ball distribution. The defense
also got boosts from the additions of Foard and Jamie Nesbitt,
filling in for Perlman, and from the return of co-captain Melissa
Vogelsong from injury.

Stanford is 4-0 in nonconference games against teams outside the
Top 10 rankings. However, the Cardinal will be looking for its
first victory against a Top 10 team in four tries when it plays
Sunday at No. 4 North Carolina (12-3), which won at No. 5 Duke on
Friday, 9-7.

A victory against a highly-ranked team would go far in helping
secure an NCAA at-large bid should Stanford win the Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation tournament (April 23-26) at home.

"I hope so," Bokker said. "Overall, we have a pretty good strength
of schedule. It would be nice to upset one of these Top 10
teams."